back to your online handyman.com

Being an online handyman is all about the things that need doing around the house.  And since I am around houses so much online as well as off, I am very much drawn by the house blogs.

One blog in particular that that I read on a daily basis and know that my readers would enjoy as well is http://hookedonhouses.net

Julia features a different house every day and does a beautiful job of displaying it with pictures.  Today she is visiting Mel Gibson’s Tudor Style mansion in Greenwich. 

Stop over and take a look.……… 

  and if you are a blogger with any type of blog related to home improvement, houses, decorating or anything close make sure that you check out hookedonhouses.net on Friday’s when Julia features one fantastic blog party.  Not only is it a lot of fun, but it will drive lots of traffic to your site.   

The other day while we were working at a customer’s house I happened to notice that there was someone in the next room cleaning walls.  In fact, the walls of the room that we were working in looked pretty good to.  Then I took a peek in a third room and could see that it just didn’t have the same look and feel.  What was the difference?

Because the homeowner was looking to do a thorough cleaning job and not spend a fortune, instead of painting the walls they decided to clean them.  And while there is a common misconception that the only thing that can be done with walls is to paint them, the fact is that in many situations they can be cleaned.
 
When doing a thorough house cleaning, the one thing that many people over look is the walls.  It’s too bad because so often when we are called in to spruce up one area of a room, once we are finished you can really see how bad other areas such as the walls look.

Have you ever thought that the walls in your home looked dirty, but you didn’t want to go through all of the mess, expense and chaos that goes along with painting?

So if you decide that your walls are not yet to the point where you need to repaint and you want to clean them what do you do?    How can you safely go about cleaning walls?  Well, it really is a simple process you just need to take some care and always keep in mind that you only want to remove the dirt, not the paint.

Here is how you can give your walls that freshly painted look without ever lifting a brush;

1. First make sure to cover the floors.  I personally like a cloth drop cloth because it absorbs water and doesn’t get nearly as messy as newspaper, although newspaper or towels can be used.

2. Remove all hanging items, such as pictures. 

3. Once you have the floors covered and the pictures removed take a clean terry towel preferably white and wipe down the walls to make sure that they are free of dust.

4. Next fill two pails with warn water and add about a ¼ cup of a mild cleaner such as Pine Sol to one of the buckets.  You can even use dishwashing detergent if Pine Sol is not available.  Remember to test any cleaning solution in an inconspicuous first, to make sure that it will not harm the paint. 

5. Once you are sure that the cleaning solution is safe, dip the flat surface of a sponge into the pail with soap and gently apply it to the wall beginning at the top and working down.  Do not rub hard and do not saturate the walls. 

6. Once you have applied soapy water to a small area ring out your sponge using the clear water from the other pail and gently blot the wall to remove the soap.
 
7. Repeat the process until you have covered the entire wall and then blot the wall with a clean terry towel.  

And you thought that the only thing that you could do was repaint.  If you would like further help with this project or any other you contact me a onlinehandyman@gmail.com  

Last week one night, it may have been Thursday when I fell asleep on the sofa only to be woken up by the rain.  Considering all of the rain that we have been having lately it should not have woken me up except for the fact that I was not just hearing the rain I was actually getting wet.  Since I had never gotten wet from the rain inside of the house before, I immediately jumped up.  It was like I was outdoors only that was not the case - it was raining in the living room.

Right away I noticed that one area of the room was getting wetter than others so I placed a pail there hoping to catch as much of the water as possible.  The remaining area where water was coming in was too widespread for a pail so I put a towel there hoping to catch some more of the water.  Fortunately, the rain quickly stopped and so did my leaky ceiling.

The next day, immediately upon inspection, I could see that the water that had been coming in was coming from one of the skylights.  There are several reasons why your skylights could leak including, a bad seal, condensation or as I suspected in our situation old, worn out flashing up on the roof. 

As you know, this blog is about inner growth through expanding your horizons in home maintenance and repair, but I also stress knowing your limits.  And even though I am a handyman and have been for the past 16 years I know that roofing especially when it involves skylights should be left to a professional roofer.  They do it day in and day out and have the experience to get the job done right.  But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have some knowledge about the job.
 
This way you can make intelligent decisions because you know what you are talking about and the growth comes from the learning experience and even more importantly from the confidence of getting the job completed right even though you many have not lifted a single tool.
 
So as I already mentioned, if you find that skylights are leaking and it is raining in your living room as it was in mine I suggest hiring a professional.  However, what you want to make sure is that they peel back your roofing shingles and install new flashing.  I checked on the “This Old House “ website and this is what I learned.

They prefer step flashing on the sides because it interlocks with the roof shingles for a good seal. The top of the skylight should be protected with a continuous piece of head flashing that overlaps the uppermost row of the step flashing and is overlapped itself by shingles.

I told you that roofing needs to be left to the pros.

Sometimes to get a job done right you need to take a step back and let a professional do the job.  Check out my post on how to hire a contractor.  They have the “know how” and experience that you do not have from doing that kind of work on a daily basis.  And although I encourage folks to challenge themselves and take on slightly more than they have done before, taking on a big job and having no experience at all can only lead to disastrous results.  Being a good DIYer means knowing your limitations and growing as a person will come through making the right choices.

A tile back splash in a kitchen is truly elegant.  The luxuriousness of tile can make the difference between an ordinary kitchen and a spectacular one.

And a tile back splash is so easy to maintain, just take a rag and wipe it down.  So a while back when a friend of mine was giving his house a makeover one of the things on his “to do” list was to tile the back splash in the kitchen. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I was contactd by a company who’s link appears below.  They asked me if I was interested in being a distributor for their product, The Belt Bucket Kit.  It is a container for paint and I couldn’t make up my mind so I thought that I might ask your opinion. 

http://www.paintbeltpro.com/ 

It certainly is something that I have never seen before, but is it worth $24.99 (US Dollars) plus shipping to not have to hold the container of paint?  I could see where this could be helpful when you are on top of a ladder or some other hard to reach place.  The product is new to the market and I understand that it was very popular at the recent home show in Las Vegas.  I would love to hear your opinions.  Thanx!

As a blogger there are many blogs that I follow.  Some are within my own niche of home repair and maintenance and others have nothing in common with my blog, but I just enjoy reading them.  I am also constantly on the look out for new blogs to follow. 

Here is a blog that found recently that I really like and would like to share with you.  I can relate to it because it is a blog about the place where I live – Long Island.  It’s written by a graduate student trying to preserve the rich history of the area.

Click the link and enjoy,

http://www.oldlongisland.com/

and please let me know what you think of our island.

Hello Readers,

  I was just contacted by CSN/Rugs a division of CSN/Stores.  It seems that they are interested in doing a rug give away and thought that my readers might be interested.  For those of you that may not be familiar with them they are a $200 million company and a top 3 online retailer of home and office goods.  Based in the US they employ about 400 people and ship to the US and Canada as well as the UK. 

Their stores include AllModern.com, Cookware.com, Luggage.com, BedroomFurniture.com, CSNLighting.com, Strollers.com, CookwareEssentials.co.uk and CSNLighting.co.uk.

Their mission is to provide an unparalleled shopping experience by providing a large easy to find selection of brand name merchandise at affordable prices.  Their rugs even have a 120% price match guarantee.
     
I checked them out and I have to tell you that I was very impressed.  If you want to check them out for yourself, click on the following link.

http://www.csnrugs.com/

So back to the giveaway, the rugs that they are giving away are pictured below.  You have your choice of either 2 X 3 Kas rug, from their signature collection.  Both are hand tufted in China of 100% better quality wool.
 
All that you have to do to win it is leave me a comment.  You can comment about anything that you like as long as it is not self promoting.  Unfortunately they can only ship to the US or Canada.  Then in two weeks on June 24th I will hold a random drawing to decide on a winner.  Good Luck!

Your Online Handyman

Now if you came over from Hooked on House’s Friday Bog Party or even if you didn’t why don’t you head back over there and see what everyone else is hooked on this week…

Last week Your Online Handyman found himself up on the roof.  With all of the rain that we have been having I noticed that my gutters were overflowing and although rain water is supposed to be taken away from your house through gutters and down spouts, mine was over flowing and coming right over the top.

Realizing how damaging water can be especially in a basement where it often winds up I decided that I better do something to correct the situation.  When you consider that many of the systems in your house are located in your basement including the electrical and heating you become kind of uncomfortable when you add water to the equation.  Many basements also contain irreplaceable item such as pictures and important documents.

So there I was up on the roof and boy was I glad that I was!  Considering I clean the gutters twice a year, I was amazed at the amount of branches and sticks not to mention all of the droppings from the oak trees this time of year.

But, thankfully I got up there before any damage was done.  The last thing that I want is to have water in my basement.  Realizing that prevention can go along way I put together a list of things that you might want to take a look at if you are having a problem with water or even if you don’t have a problem right now but, want to make sure that you don’t have one in the future.

1. Improper grade in the landscape next to your house - One of the biggest reasons that people get water in their basement is because it is allowed to accumulate right at the foundation of the house and then because the slope of the landscape is not pitched away from the building leaving the water no place to go but down - right into your basement. 

2. Gutters and down spouts - Just like with my situation working gutters and down spouts are essential when avoiding water in your basement.  Their job is to collect water from the roof and then take it away from the house.  If they are clogged they are going to overflow like mine did.  Combine that with improper grading and you are certain to have a problem.

3. Foundation cracks - If once you have made sure that your landscape is the right grade and your gutters and down spouts are in working order you still have water coming in you are going to have to water proof the foundation walls.  There are many hydraulic compounds that actually expand as they dry that you can use to patch problem areas of the foundation.  Cracks can also be filled with polyurethane grouts.  Or if the problem is severe you can hire a professional to fix the foundation walls from the outside.

As with so many things if we just take a couple of minutes to prevent having a problem it is so much easier, less expensive and time consuming to fix the problem before there is one. Preventing water in your basement is no different; by taking a few simple preventative measures now you can save yourself hours of frustration and clean up later.     

Spring is allergy season and if you suffer from allergies you know that nothing could be more uncomfortable than the breathing problems that they cause!  The last thing that you want is for something to make you feel worse.  Unfortunately there is a tiny microscopic organism that resides in your home that can do just that.

If you recall my blog post “Do You Have a Spider in Your House” you may remember that dust mites will aggravate breathing problems including allergies and virtually every house has them, no matter how clean you keep it.  The trick is in just keeping their numbers down. 
 
In that post I gave you a number of things that you could do to begin to win the war against those pesky mites.   You may also remember that the one thing dust mites do not like is cleanliness because as their name says they like to live in dust.  So I gave you a number of cleaning techniques to do just that.

Well, I have another cleaning idea that you can add to the battle on the dust mites.  In fact this process is good on a number of things including ceramic tile, your refrigerator and even fabrics just to name a few.  The process that I am referring to is steam.
  
It’s because water is your best vehicle to clean anything and the added heat is what makes steam such a powerful cleaner.    And for those of you that are worried about bringing chemical cleaners into your home remember steam is natural and can be used alone although chemical detergent can be added.  

And if you suffer from allergies you will be glad to know that steam kills dust mites.
 
Although similar in shape to a regular vacuum cleaner a steam cleaner is quite different.  Instead of sucking in dirt through a hose, the hose is used to deliver very hot water to the tip on the end.  They call it steam, but traditional steam cleaners only heat water to about 250 degrees with a temperature at the tip of about 160 degrees.

And if you want an even better level of clean that dries even quicker because it has a water output of only about 5% to let say clean something like your mattress where those dust mites number in the thousands you can upgrade to a vapor steamer.   Originally developed in Europe vapor steam cleaners heat the water to around 300 degrees in the machine and have a tip temperature of about 225 degrees.  Certainly no dust mite will stand a chance against that.

If you suffer from allergies or just want to breathe a little easier the first thing that you need to do is make sure that your home is clean and dust mite free.  And steam which is a powerful natural cleaner is a great way to do just that.

Hello Readers,

   I just had an idea and was wondering if anyone would be interested in a Your Online Handyman radio program on Blog Talk Radio.  I was thinking that based on your requests I could bring on a guest and answer your questions about home repair and maintenance.  Maybe I could get one of my interior decorator friends to come on.  You would be able to call in and it would be like a chat instead of all of this typing.  Anyone have any interest or ideas on this one?

Scott

Your Online Handyman